Engine Issue Relegates Matt Mills to 25th-Place Finish at the Milwaukee Mile

After finishing fifth in his KBM debut earlier this season at Richmond Raceway and having a fast J.F. Electric in Saturday’s practice session at the Milwaukee Mile, Matt Mills came into Sunday’s Clean Harbor 175 with high hopes of producing another solid run.

Mills battled a loose-handling Silverado in Sunday’s qualifying session and was slated to start 26th before the team was issued a penalty for an unapproved adjustment, which forced the driver of the No. 51 to start from the tail of the field. Mills came from the tail to finished 17th in the opening stage, but late in the opening stanza reported that he was experiencing a vibration under the truck and that the engine was reaching its maximum output.

After several trips down pit road across the final two stages the team diagnosed that the truck was operating down a cylinder and didn’t have a quick fix. Mills was forced to nursing the truck home for the remainder of the race and remarkably was able to remain on the lead lap. The end result was a disappointing 25th-place finish in his final of two starts for the team.

Talk about your race.

“We had to go to the rear, obviously, that was kind of a setback. But in the opening stage we showed speed, and it looked like it was going to be a good day. The first 10 laps we worked all the way up inside the top 20, so we thought we had a pretty good truck. For whatever reason, the motor started laying down on itself and just kind of killed our momentum down the straightaways to where we couldn’t really do anything except make up time in the corners. The straightaways are so long here and not having a motor that was operating correctly definitely mattered a lot. Just kind of had to nurse it the rest of the race, that was kind of the best option that we could do. I can’t thank J.F. Electric and KBM enough for this opportunity, it’s been fun and hopefully we can come back and do it again some time.”

·        Grant Enfinger won Sunday’s Clean Harbors 175 and locked himself into the Round of 8 of the Truck Series playoffs. It was his third victory of 2023 and the 10th of his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career. Carson Hocevar finished second, while Christian Eckes, Corey Heim and Matt Crafton rounded out the top five.

·        There were Seven cautions for 44 laps and five lead changes among four drivers.

The No. 51 team leaves Milwaukee 10th in the Craftsman Truck owner point standings, 21 points below the cutoff line for advancing to the Round of 8 with one race remaining in the round.